The present invention relates to amusement devices and more particularly to yo-yos.
The historical background of the yo-yo is a topic for debate among many yo-yo enthusiasts. According to the American Yo-yo Association, it is commonly believed that the yoyo originated in China; however, the first historical mention of the yo-yo was from Greece in the year 500 B.C. Also, drawings of objects resembling the yo-yo have been discovered in ancient Egyptian temples. From these early beginnings, the yo-yo spread throughout the world before being introduced into the United States during the 1920s.
Although the popularity of the yo-yo has gone up and down since it was first introduced, the yo-yo is still popular and yo-yo enthusiasts are constantly pushing the limits of what maneuvers or “tricks” they can perform with the toy. The most rudimentary yo-yo maneuver is to drop the yo-yo from the user's hand in which one end is looped to the user's finger and the other end is looped around the axle between the two yo-yo halves. When the user drops the yoyo from his/her hand, the yo-yo unwinds down the string towards the ground. Upon reaching the end of the string, the user simultaneously pulls the other end of the string up, thereby causing the yo-yo to wind back up the string and into the user's hand once again.
One innovation was to tie the two ends of the string together to make a circle and then loop the string around the axle between the two yo-yo halves. The string-looping innovation enabled users to perform a more advanced maneuver. Instead of pulling the string up as the yoyo reaches the end of its tether, the user lowers his/her hand thereby causing the yo-yo to spin in the loop at the end of the string. The maneuver is commonly referred to as “putting the yo-yo to sleep.” Other more advanced maneuvers involve placing additional layers or segments of string within the gap between the two yo-yo halves, which may result in friction between the string and the yo-yo halves.
Manufacturers have sought to design the yo-yo to facilitate the various maneuvers performed by yo-yo enthusiasts. For example, manufacturers have sought to increase spin times, thereby increasing the time allowed to perform such advanced maneuvers. One approach has been to increase the centripetal forces acting on the spinning yo-yo by redistributing the weight of the yo-yo halves to the periphery of the halves. Another approach has been to use a trans axle with bearings attached to the axle to avoid the friction between the axle and the string created when a user puts the yo-yo to sleep. Friction between the string and the yo-yo halves, however, remains an obstacle to greater spin times. Frequently, the string will move off the center of the bearing as the yo-yo winds up the string back to the user's hand. The string will then rub the inner surface of the yo-yo halves as it unwinds back down the string, thereby creating friction and thus slowing to spin of the yoyo. The friction created between the string and the inner surfaces of the yo-yo halves is especially a problem when a user performs more advanced “string layering” maneuvers. The additional layers of string tend to move from the center of the bearing and rub the inner surfaces of the yo-yo halves, thus creating friction and slowing the rate of spin of the yo-yo.
One attempt to solve problem of friction between the string and inner surfaces of the yo-yo halves includes adding a groove to the bearing. This feature was disclosed as early as 1965 by Isaacson U.S. Pat. No. 3,175,326. Although the groove might prevent the string from contacting the yo-yo halves, the groove does not allow substantial desired lateral movement of the string and thus limits the aforesaid desirable “string layering” maneuvers that can be performed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a yo-yo bearing arrangement that tends to urge the string towards the center of the bearing and away from the side of the spinning yo-yo halves, and yet beneficially allowing the string to move laterally.